A TUMBARUMBA man has been convicted of having a trap to get brumbies in state forest and catching four horses by luring them with salt blocks.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
James Edward Kelton had pleaded not guilty to five charges of having a trapping device in a forest reserve and four counts of taking an animal in state forest.
He was found guilty and convicted by magistrate Tony Murray with fines totalling $1000 imposed after a two-day hearing in Tumbarumba Local Court.
The court heard Kelton, 62, of “Brandy Mary’s”, set up the trap on a boundary fence of a block leased by him.
It was claimed by him that a Forest NSW employee had given permission during an audit to trap brumbies.
But statements obtained by police from three employees rejected such a claim.
There was a further suggestion by Kelton he had certain rights regarding feral animal control on his lease.
It was claimed by him in an email to police NSW Environment Minister Robyn Parker he regarded brumbies as feral.
There was an attachment of a letter sent to Kelton by a National Parks and Wildlife Service representative which said brumbies were deemed feral.
The investigating officer in the case, Albury stock squad detective Sen-Constable Scott Barton, said an amendment to the Game and Feral Animal Control Act 2002 referred to animals permitted to be hunted and shot in national parks and reserves.
But brumbies are not included on the list as the National Parks and Wildlife Service has already established a program in the Kosciusko National Park for the removal of brumbies.
Sen-Constable Barton was told about the trap by a State Forests employee on June 14 last year.
Four days later Sen-Constable Barton went to the Bago State Forest which joins Kelton’s lease and found a round yard with spear trap wired into the entrance.
Inside the trap four horses had been lured by a salt block and a fifth horse was nearby.
When Sen-Constable Barton walked towards the trap, the horses pushed out of the trap escaping back into the forest.
Sen-Constable Barton took photographs of the traps which were evidence during the hearing.
He was accompanied by other police when they attended Kelton’s lease on July 21 and they inspected the trap.
There was a blue tarp hanging at the top of the trap gate with a wire running about 50 metres away along a fence back towards Kelton’s house.
He explained when horses were in the yard, the wire is pulled which allows the tarp to roll down over the trap gate.
It stops horses from trying to get out.
